This invention relates to a fuel rail containing a plurality of electromagnetic fuel injectors for supplying fuel to respective cylinders of an internal combustion engine. More specifically, it relates to such a fuel rail having an internal fuel filtering member at each injector site.
It is well known that small particles of rust, scale, dirt or debris carried by the fuel can interfere with the efficient operation of fuel injectors or even cause permanent damage to them, if such particles are allowed to enter the fuel injector mechanism. Efforts have been made in the past to filter such particles out of the fuel before it enters the fuel rail. Although these prior art systems greatly reduced the hazard, they had at least one weakness. Namely, they could do nothing about particles contained in that portion of the system lying downstream from the filter. For example, loose particles which entered or were contained in the downstream section components of the fuel system prior to installation or that were produced therein during subsequent use. To further alleviate the problem, each injector was provided with its own internal filter. This helped but, because the filter inside the injector was necessarily of very limited size, it was subject to becoming clogged by only a small amount of debris. Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide a fuel rail with an internal filter means having a filter member adjacent to each injector site for filtering out particulate contaminates immediately prior to the fuel entering the injector. It is another object of this invention to provide a relatively large area filter member that is dedicated to filtering only that portion of the fuel which is being conducted to its respective injector. It is yet another object to provide such a filter means with a vertically disposed self cleaning surface. It is still another object to provide a fuel rail structure in which the filter means is held in position around a fuel injector receptacle or socket by adjoining components and thus does not require an additional attachment means.